The Truth Behind the Smile
by conventgirlvampire
Summary: Quinn's holding on to her popularity through Finn but she's not exactly interested in him. When she starts to notice a heartbroken Rachel and the way she clings onto Santana something inside her starts to burn. Pezberry, Quitt, eventual Faberrittana.


**Title:** The Truth Behind the Smile

**Chapter:** 1

**Characters/Pairings:** Rachel, Santana, Quinn, Brittany, rest of the Glee club; Pezberry, Quitt, eventual Faberrittana

**Word Count:** 1,584

**Spoilers:** Up to 2x16 Original Songs

**Summary:** Quinn's holding on to her popularity through Finn but she's not exactly interested in him. When she starts to notice a heartbroken Rachel and the way she clings onto Santana something inside her starts to burn. Pezberry and Quitt, eventual Faberrittana.

**A/N: **Right, so I'm re-doing this. The first few chapters won't have many major changes. Just maybe some more dialogue. Also, I'll be adding Brittany's POV because I've decided to change the endgame pairing to my OT4, Faberrittana. Right now, I'm projecting about somewhere between 48 and 64 chapters mainly because it'll be a different pairing every 16 chapters as time passes. At most, it'll probably be about 80 if I decide to deal with a threesome before the final foursome. Be forewarned, this isn't my best writing, mainly because it reads kind of awkwardly and my style is a little different now but I'm happy with it. So read and enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own it. Never did.

* * *

**Chapter I**

**Quinn**

At first, she only watched Rachel because of their fight about Finn. She had worked so hard to win him back, to ensure that her popularity was in check, that she was not about to let her steal him away. She had even gone so far as to tell her that she would never stand a chance at winning him back the week leading up to Regionals. Nothing would stop her from staying on top, even if she had to replace her Cheerios uniform with Finn Hudson to do so.

Then they had won Regionals and the attacks on glee club had been reduced. That was when she started to notice the changes in her. Gone were the argyle sweaters and knee highs, skinny jeans and tank tops covered by designer jackets taking their place. Gone too was the confidence that had once bee there, replaced by a kind of fragile vulnerability that followed her everywhere. Even Quinn had to admit, it was kind of _hot_ to see her like that.

When she started to hang out with Santana, Quinn noted that a small measure of the old Berry ego was back. That was when she started to keep a tighter hold on Finn. The new Rachel Berry was a dangerous force to be reckoned with and one that she knew had to be stopped soon.

Three weeks after Regionals, Quinn found herself waiting at Rachel's locker for the girl to arrive. She was going to put an end to the diva's game, whatever it was, before she could even steal her position away from her.

"Hey Quinn. What're you doing here?"

She turned on hearing the diva's voice, her eyebrow arching when she saw her. Rachel was wearing a black minidress that hugged her body and a matching long-sleeved jacket over a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. Looking at the dress, she realised that the jeans were probably necessary for school as it was scandalously short otherwise.

"I think it's time we continued that conversation we had before about Finn," she replied, her mouth dry as she tried not to think about how much she thought the other girl looked sexy in that outfit. "I don't think you understood me before."

"There's nothing to talk about," Rachel said turning to walk away. Quinn reached out to grab her arm but the brunette stepped away before she could. "Really, Quinn. There's nothing to discuss. You can have Finn."

"Don't walk away from me before I'm finished Rachel. Whatever it is you're doing, whatever little game you're playing with Santana? It needs to stop and it needs to stop right now."

"Is that what you think it is Quinn? A game?"

"That's exactly what it is. You're trying to get him back and it won't work. He doesn't want you and he never will." She tried not to think about the voice in the back of her mind that was telling her that she was a liar and a fool or the way Rachel looked at her, the girl's walls seeming to crack with each word.

"What if it wasn't Finn?" Her voice was quiet, so quiet that Quinn would have barely heard it had she not been standing so close to her. "What if I wasn't doing this for Finn?"

"Then who are you doing it for?"

Rachel did not answer her. It was almost as if she could not and that in itself annoyed her even more. The girl always answered her, no matter what the topic was and her silence only served to fuel the anger she felt welling up inside.

"The hell Rachel! Tell me who you're doing it for! You can't just go around changing yourself for someone else. Are you that pathetic that you have to beg someone to care about you enough that you'd change everything for them? Are you that much of a whiny, irritating loser?"

The shorter girl's face changed, going from vulnerability to hardness in a matter of moments only to soften and crumple once again as she answered, "What I'm doing…can't you just leave me alone for once Quinn? Can't you just let me be happy for once?"

"Are you? Are you fucking happy?"

"I…" she trailed off before turning from Quinn, "I don't think I ever will be."

She watched her walk away, the brunette's head lowering imperceptibly when she thought no one was looking. There was something about her that hit Quinn hard as she watched. Perhaps it was the dullness of her chocolate brown eyes or the lifelessness of her voice that kept her from pursuing her, that kept her rooted to the spot in front of Rachel's locker.

"Nice one Q," Santana muttered from behind her. "Look at what you've done now."

She turned to face the Latina who was also staring at Rachel's retreating back. "I haven't done anything."

Santana looked at her in disgust and something that she nearly mistook for despair. "I forgot, you're the incarnation of perfection. Isn't that right Q? You don't have to do anything to get what you want but you hurt anyone else who stands in your way."

"Maybe you should look in a mirror, S," she hissed back, confused as to why Santana would get mad over _Rachel Berry_ and angry at the implication in her words. "As I recall, you were the one who treated Brittany like shit and then ran away from her when she chose Artie over you."

"Brittany chose Artie over me because I wasn't ready to accept it back then, not because of how I treated her."

"Come off it, S. Weren't you the one who was always spouting off something about sex not being dating?"

She watched as her former friend clenched her jaw, the anger faintly visible behind eyes cloudy with memories of a better time. "I treated her like a fucking queen. She was everything to me, Q, everything and I made sure to protect that. You, of all people, don't get to judge me for what I've done."

"Yeah, like I'm supposed to believe that. I wonder how good a fuck Brittany was for you to keep coming back? I mean, it's not like you ever loved –"

The hallway rang out with the sound of Santana's palm making contact with Quinn's face. They were both lucky enough that it was almost empty so that very few people were there to witness what was going on between the two.

Santana stared at her hand in shock for a moment before she turned back to Quinn, the fire in her eyes blazing now that she let her anger out. For a moment, she was afraid of the girl, afraid of what she might actually do to her.

"Don't you dare talk to me about Brittany. It's about Rachel, not her. You may think that in the end it's alright if only you benefit from this but you don't even know what she's – oh god no!"

A mixture of emotions crossed Santana's face before she ran down the hall in the direction that Rachel had gone. Dismissing the guilt churning in her stomach, Quinn turned away and headed to class, already dreading what might happen later on during glee.

Quinn was the first person to arrive at the auditorium that afternoon for one of many dress rehearsals. If asked she would never admit it but she kind of liked glee club. It felt so good to stop trying to be popular for one minute and just be herself.

"Babe, don't be like that." The sound of Santana's voice caught her off-guard and she stopped her approach to the piano. From the way she sounded, the Latina was probably talking to one of the many randoms she had at her fingertips. "Come on. They won't notice, I promise."

She was surprised when, moments later, the ex-Cheerio walked in hand in hand with Rachel, singing Defying Gravity as they made their way to the stage. She could not miss the way the brunette lifted her head at the song nor the way she seemed to lean into Santana while she sang.

Quinn cleared her throat, suddenly uncomfortable at seeing the two together. She dismissed the feeling rising from the pit of her stomach as nothing more than leftover guilt from that morning and sat down in the front row, all desire to play suddenly lost.

"Well look who it is."

"Hello Santana. Man-hands."

Rachel flushed at the name but did not rise to the jab, contrary to Quinn's expectations. Instead, she went to the stage, looked around for a bit and then sat down, her seat far from the blonde's.

Quinn tried but she could not help but examine the diva as she sat, this new persona catching her attention. Again, she saw the lifelessness, the lack of zeal for what would usually be the only thing that Rachel ever got excited about (not that she cared. It was Berry, after all). She was skinnier than Quinn remembered, knowing that while the brunette could never be called fat she was never that thin.

Then there was that bandage on her hand. Wrapped around her wrist up past the knuckles of her fingers, there were tiny pinpricks of blood dotting the white material. That had not been there in the morning and she was about to ask about it for some reason when Santana glared at her.

This was going to be a long afternoon.


End file.
